Roof insulation in a rental

Has anyone asked their realestate to ask their LL to put some kind of insulation in a rented house?

We have no air con, ceiling fans or insulation in an old weatherboard house. The house faces west and has a tin roof. Needless to say on days of late the house has been unbearable. Apparently a portable air con will do nothing (according to the sales rep).

So I was hoping to get some kind of insulation in the property, yet I don't know how it would go down. We have to leave our house in intense heat as inside is hotter than outside so something needs to change.

As a landlord I would consider an air conditioner before I would consider insulation. All insulation will do in a weatherboard is maintain the temp, whether it be hot or cold. Ask for an air on. Hopefully you have a decent landlord

We got our landlord to put in ducted evaporative cooling. By putting a case forth that it adds to the value of the house and With $10 rent increase it will be paid off in 5 years, as well as being tax deductible.

I'm going to side track a bit here to talk about portable air-conditioners...

We own our house, but due to an influx of kohls in our neighbourhood each spring/summer, have elected to keep portable air-conditioners as our means of cooling the house because the white noise blocks out the bird noise!

Portable air-cons don't keep your house as cool as the installed types, particularly not on very hot days, however they do make a noticeable and very pleasant difference. Our 7 year old convair is on it's last legs and was given away for a 'spare room' use, however it was quite good, as is the 5 year old Dimplex and brand new, reverse cycle dimplex.

Over a typical summer night, the 5 year old Dimplex will extract 8 litres of water from my son's bedroom and keep it cool enough for him to sleep untroubled even on the hottest nights. My husband and I have the newer dimplex in our room. It recycles the water, so there's no need to worry about collecting water every night. It does an amazing job of cooling the room, even though our room size is right at the maximum size recommended for the air-con. We paid $519 to buy it and have it delivered.

Honestly, if your landlord isn't cooperative, I would look into this option. Resale prices are terrific, too, so if it doesn't work for you, you shouldn't struggle to find a buyer.

I would have thought that celing insulation would still be worthwhile in this scenario. We have a weatherboard with a colorbond roof - the house is old but the roof isn't and there is a layer of foil insulation under the colorbond. We also have ceiling insulation. Some of our walls are insulated because the house was extended.

OP I would ring a large insulation installer and ask them for advice. Also, a whirlybird or two in the roof would help to release hot air. These are pretty cheap to buy but with a colorbond roof they have to be installed by a roof plumber apparently.

All you can do is ask. It sounds like a very reasonable request - your house needs to be liveable after all, you pay rent to live there, not to have to go outside when things get unbearable, IYKWIM. Let them know how hot it gets in your house and that you have to go outside sometimes due to the heat, so they know it's a serious issue and not just a case of you wanting some more comfort.

I asked for insulation here, and my LL put it in. My main problem here was how cold it got inside in the winter, and there was no way to get the house warm, let alone keep in the warmth. I included those temperatures in the request, maybe that prompted her to act.

LL had long been needing to replace the roof too, so when that was done, they put in additional insulation.. so now I have double, ceiling and roof.

I got a rent increase soon after of course, but it was worth it. It makes a big difference in summer and in winter.

As a landlord, for me it would depend on the type of roof and the access.

If there was an easy way to gain access and the roof had a proper cavity, I would have no problem with going in and putting insulation bats in the roof, particularly as we have a heap of the stuff lying around from doing our own house recently.

If there was no roof cavity or easy access, no way would I be doing it. This is the situation in our current house and it literally required the roof plaster to be removed and replaced, or tiles / colorbond removed from the exterior of the roof to have this done - the cost would be ridiculous.

"Hey, come here a second," my mum said as she replaced the book in my hands with a wooden spoon covered in what I prayed was red sauce. Together, we walked into the kitchen and hovered over the skillet like we were peering into a crystal ball. Looking into my future, I saw me eating a lot of take away.